If You'll Have Me
by loveshopelost
Summary: A brief continuation of the Dead Man's Chest, spoilers inside for those who have not seen the movie. I may write more depending on how this is recieved. Please read and review.
1. Chapter 1

Elizabeth instinctively moved towards Will as Captain Barbossa descended the stairs of Tia Dalma's strange tree house, placing her hand in his. Her simple action was met with no comforting squeeze of the hand or other small gesture of love to let her know he would protect her from her former tormentor and Jack's sworn enemy. Instead, her beloved withdrew his hand without looking at her, placing it on his scabbard to steady it as he drew his sword from it and pointed it right at Barbossa's heart.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Will demanded, his voice a low, threatening growl as he voiced the thought the remainder of the _Black Pearl_'s crew was thinking as they crowded around him.

"I, young Master Turner, have returned from the ends of the Earth, andby the sounds of it, that is exactly where you are fixing to go," Barbossa replied in his same old manner.

"I don't trust you," Will returned, standing his ground. "You led the mutiny against Jack. Why would you help us bring him back?"

"One reason and one reason only, my boy: the _Black Pearl_. You see, now that I have returned from the end of the earth, I've been missin' my ship—"

"Jack's ship," Will snarled, standing up a little straighter. "The _Black Pearl_ is Jack's ship."

"Well there I'll be differing in opinion from you, boy," Barbossa said. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, my thoughts have been with the _Black Pearl_ of late, sentimental value, don't you know. So here are me terms: I will take you to the end of the earth to bring back your beloved Jack Sparrow—"

"_Captain!_" Gibbs, Will, Elizabeth, Pintel and Ragetti said sharply in one breath.

"Yes, yes, _Captain_ Jack Sparrow. I will take you to retrieve your _Captain_, in return for my ship back."

Will looked as though he wanted to refuse, but Gibbs put his large, meaty hand on the young man's shoulder and said, "It's only a ship, lad. It be a small price to pay to have Jack back."

Will slowly nodded his head, sheathed his sword, and turned and walked out of the tree house. Elizabeth attempted to follow him but Tia Dalma stopped her.

"I wouldn't be walkin' after him right now, young woman. He need to be alone with the thoughts that plague him. Come, I put you all up for the night; tomorrow you begin your journey. Follow me."

Elizabeth reluctantly followed the strange island woman, feeling a pang that her fiancée would rather be by himself than speak with her.

Will did notreturn until far into the night, and Elizabeth could not help waiting up for him. Whenshe heard the familiarsound of his heavy bootstramping up the old wooden steps she went to the archway of her room and caught his arm in her thin, white hand to prevent him from going any farther.

"Will I wish to speak with you—" she began, but before she could proceed any further, he cut her off.

"I am regrettably very busy, Miss Swann, and have not the time to stand about talking, so if you will please excuse me…" Will said, refusing to meet her eye and trying to move away.

"No, I will not!" Elizabeth exclaimed angrily. "Not until you tell me why you are avoiding me and 'Miss Swann'-ing me all of the sudden! I have no idea what could possibly have gotten into you!"

"No idea what has gotten into me? Not one?" he demanded with the air of a man trying to get his anger under control and failing dismally as he backed Elizabeth into the bedroom.

"No, I don't! I have no idea why my fiancée is suddenly treating me like a distant acquaintance, but I would dearly love to find out!"

"Fiancée! That's rich, for you to be telling me how one should treat their fiancée! As far as I know, I am not the one who first betrayed their fiancée and then lied about it!"

"What are you _talking_ about!" Elizabeth demanded, holding back the tears which were only too handy these days.

"What am I talking about? What am _I_ talking about!" he shouted, looking slightly deranged with hurt and anger. "You kissed Jack! You _kissed_ him, Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth staggered back as if he had struck her.

"You…you…you saw that?" she stammered.

"Yes, I did, though I have no doubt that I was not supposed to," he snapped back, finding it easier to be angry than hurt. "Imagine my feelings when I saw my fiancée, the woman I have loved since I was a thirteen-year-old boy, locked in a clandestine kiss with Captain Jack Sparrow!"

Elizabeth opened her mouth to speak, attempted to explain the situation, but somehow her courage failed her.

_What if I tell him and he hates me for killing Jack,_ she thought with panic.

"You know, why couldn't you have just saved me the torment of mind and rammed a knife into my heart instead?" he demanded sarcastically, interrupting her thoughts.

Elizabeth winced as his harsh words hit her. She had never heard Will speak to her as he did know, and deep down in her heart, she could not blame him. She would feel exactly as he did if she had seen him kiss another woman.

_If I do not tell him the truth, he will hate me forever for betraying him, and I would rather he hate me for killing Jack than that._

"Oh, God, Will," she began as the tears welled in her eyes spilled over. "You have no idea how sorry I am for what I have done and have every reason to hate me, only I want you to hate me for the right reason."

Confusion was added to the anger and hurt apparent in Will's expression, only he said nothing, waiting for her to continue.

"I kissed Jack in order to trick him into backing against the mast so I could chain him to it and he couldn't get away. I knew the kraken was after him and that the only way the rest of us could get away would be if he stayed behind. I could think of no other way. You have no idea how sorry I am for what I have done and how I did it, and I understand if—if you hate me…." she trailed off, her gaze dropping to her wet boots, swiping surreptitiously at her wet face with the dirty sleeve of her jacket.

"Elizabeth," Will said softly as he lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes, hoping to see the return of the feelings her felt for her in them.

"Please forgive me," Elizabeth pleaded softly before she could stop herself, tears gushing down her grimy cheeks. She was not to proud tobeg forpardon from the man she loved."You have no idea how much I love you. I do not think I could survive if you were to leave me."

"So the kiss…you swear it meant nothing?" he asked hesitatingly.

"William Turner, you are the only man I ever want to kiss and you should know that," she said, trying to smile through her tears. She decided to punctuate her statement by standing on the tips of her toes to press her soft lips against his chapped ones.

"But…you don't hate me?" she demanded, pulling away from him abruptly. "I—I killed Jack…he's dead and it is all my fault…"

"The way I see it," Will said slowly, "Is that if Jack had come with us, the kraken would have eaten us all and then we would all be stuck at the end of the earth with no one to save us. At least this way, we are alive to save Jack."

"And after we have brought Jack back and I have freed my father from Davy Jones, I intend to marry you, Elizabeth Swann," Will said softly. "That is, if you'll still have me."

"There is nothing I want more," Elizabeth breathed softly, tears of happiness filling her eyes once again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: This chapter was very spur of the moment; I wrote it within the last hour and half, so if there is any defects of plot in it, it is most likely because it is the work of an evening rather than being ruminated over for a few days. This chapter contains my take of what will happen when our heroic pirate crew sets out from Tia Dalma. It is still as sickeningly romantic and sentimental as ever, I forewarn you, but this is how I genuinely believe the characters would act. That said, please enjoy and if you have a spare moment, reviews are greatly appreciated.**

** Love's Hope Lost**

The next morning Tia Dalma poked her head around the blanket hung in the archway that served as the bedroom's door.

"It is time to awake, children. There is a long journey ahead of you, and you be needin' to get a bigger boat and crew than what you came here with," she said before withdrawing from the room.

Elizabeth and Will groggily opened their eyes, from where they had fallen asleep sitting atop of the mat on the floor that served as a bed. They had sat up late into the night talking and sharing kisses, as only lovers do.

Their journey to pirate port of Tortuga was indeed a long and tiring one, and when Captain Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth, Gibbs, Pintel, and Raggetti arrived there a few hours after noon, they were quite ready to rest and rustle up some food before they set off on the even more harrowing journey to the end of the earth.

However, rest seemed to be the last thing on the mind of Captain Barbossa, who pointed to a grand pirate galleon in the harbor and said to them, "Ye have leave to go ashore until sunset. At that time, meet me aboard that ship. Her name be the _Pirate's Glory_."

"How do ye intend to commission a handsome old galleon such as that one to take us on a journey to the end of the earth, eh?" old Gibbs questioned contrarily; for though he would go with Barbossa to save Jack because the pirate captain was the only one who knew the way, he was not intending to make it easy for the bloody mutineer.

"Her captain owes me a debt," said Barbossa with a sinister and bloodthirsty smile that made the rest of the crew loathe to inquire anymore into Barbossa's plans.

They all dispersed, with Pintel, Raggetti and Gibbs off to get drunk off of rum at the saloon and Will and Elizabeth off to the inn where Will got a room for Elizabeth and left her to eat and then rest while he took care of some mysterious business he refused to tell her about.

Elizabeth awoke from a pleasant slumber despite the general noise of Tortuga just as the sun began its slow descent into the horizon. Dressing, she left the inn and went to await her knight in shining armor who, once arrived, would whisk her off to the Pirate's Glory and grand adventure.

"Elizabeth," she heard the familiar voice of her fiancée call out as he came up the street of the inn behind her. Whirling around, she saw Will standing before her with a strange man of about middle age; strange because his air of gentility and care for personal hygiene was extremely out of place in decadent Tortuga.

"I would like to introduce you to Mr. Christopher Watts," Will said, sounding ridiculously pleased with himself.

"How d'you do, ma'am," Mr. Watts said inclining his head in a bowing movement.

Elizabeth returned the genteel gesture, feeling nonplussed as to who this man could possibly be and why Will was bothering to make new friends when they were due back at the _Pirate's Glory_ at any moment.

"I have arranged for Mr. Watts to take you back to Port Royal to await my return," Will explained, still wearing that idiotic self-pleased look that made Elizabeth long to slap him.

"Wait, what?" Elizabeth demanded, sure she had not heard him correctly. "Will, what are you talking about? I was operating under the delusion that I would be going with you and the rest of the crew!"

"Ah, if you will excuse me for a moment, I believe I see an old acquaintance," Mr. Watts said, apparently sensing an oncoming lover's spat and desiring to get away from them as quickly as possible, for he was a being who dreaded domestic conflict of any kind. "Just call me when you require my services."

"I am sorry to put you through so much trouble Mr. Watts, for we will not be requiring your services at all," Elizabeth snapped and instantly felt bad, for it was not Mr. Watts but Will who was the object of her ire.

"Thank you, Mr. Watts, if you would give us a moment, we will be with you presently," Will told the good man as graciously as he could.

"No we will not—" Elizabeth began, but it was no use, for Mr. Watts was already scurrying away.

"Elizabeth—" Will began in the tone of voice he used when he was trying to remonstrate with her.

"Do not even attempt to talk me into going back to Port Royal like a good, obedient little wife or I will knock you down on your overprotective posterior!" Elizabeth half-shouted at him.

"My love, I know you want to go with us to rescue Jack, but it is far too dangerous—"

"Dangerous? _Dangerous!_" Elizabeth spat lividly. "Like helping the crew fight the kraken was a walk in the garden!"

"Elizabeth, I am not calling into question your bravery or your ability to handle yourself, but the perils of the journey that lies ahead," Will said in his most wheedle some voice. "If anything should happen, it would be an immense comfort to me to know that you were home safe with your father."

"And should anything happen on the journey, it would be an even larger comfort to me if I could be there with you, sharing your fate as it is my duty as your wife to do so!" she returned obstinately.

"You are not my wife yet, Elizabeth, and of all the improper things you have done in the name of finding me and securing my safety, traveling with me to the end of the Earth to save a pirate would be the most improper of them all."

"You are about to risk your neck and the necks of the remaining crew of the _Black Pearl_ to save Jack and you are worried about propriety?" Elizabeth demanded incredulously. "Propriety be damned! I am going with you and that's that, William Turner!"

"No you are not! Now I have tried to reason with you, Elizabeth, but I haven't time to stand about arguing with you—" Will began, finally letting his frustration come to the surface in the form of anger.

"Then just let me come—"

"And I am not asking you, I am telling you to go with Mr. Watts right now!" Will continued on, as if he had not her interruption.

"No!" Elizabeth exclaimed indignantly, the same as she had when he told her to stay behind with the Dead Man's Chest while he was engaged in a duel with Norrington and Jack (and a lot of good her refusal to mind had done them all).

"Elizabeth," Will said softly, now resorting to pleading, "I would die if anything were to happen to you. I love you. That is why I do not want you to come with me."

"I know you love me, Will, but just because I do not go with you does not mean I am safe. Mr. Watts's ship could sink and I could drown, or I could be killed in a carriage accident once I had gotten back to Port Royal," Elizabeth replied, softening a bit at those three magic little words that always made her weak in the knees when they were said by Will.

"Yes, but the odds of you getting killed in any of those ways compared with the odds of you being harmed on the journey to the end of the Earth are no where near as great," Will said with a sigh.

"Will," Elizabeth returned, tears coming to her eyes. "I want to make things right. It is my fault Jack is dead, and I want to help bring him back. And if that means going with you to make sure you do not get into any trouble, then all the better."

Will laughed softly at her last remark and felt himself relenting almost in spite of himself.

"Alright," Will said, "But, please, promise me you will try stay out of trouble?"

Elizabeth nodded as she rushed into his open arms to receive his embrace and kisses, for no one cares about the propriety of public displays of affection in Tortuga, and the love shown between two fiancées was much more innocent than anything going on around them.


	3. Chapter 3

**I apologize for how long this chapter has been in coming. The stress of finishing up several last minute school papers, which very much zapped my creativity, house-sitting for a ten day period in which I had no computer to work on, and a rather painful injury have kept me from writing as much as I would like to. However, despite all this, I present to you the third chapter of _If You'll Have Me_, my continuation of _Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest_. I know up until now I have had a lot of heart to hearts between Will and Elizabeth, but this chapter has a dash more action thrown in, which I hope to increase in the next chapter, making this a sort of _Odyssey_ type adventure. Anyhow, this chapter is dedicated to my friend C, with a special shout-out to LoganAlpha30! Until next time,**

Loves Hope Lost

Hand in hand, Will and Elizabeth returned to the _Pirate's Glory_ a little after sunset (for indeed, they stopped to braid Elizabeth's hair into the short, boyish plait she had worn on her first trip to Tortuga) to find the large galleon and its buccaneer crew in an uproar.

"Why should we be doin' the biddin' o' some crackpot ole fool wit no profit to ourselves, eh?" demanded the leader of what seemed to be an intended mutiny.

He was a pirate of about thirty, though, as with them all, he looked much older. A mysteriously stained and ripped bandana adorned his rather large head shaped like a lumpy rock, with two beady little eyes located a few inches below his bandana, above a sharp, jutting nose over a small pursed mouth. His oddly stout frame was covered in clothes as dirty as his bandana. Both of his large ears were pierced multiple times over with gold hoops varying in size.

Brandishing his pistol, he continued his tirade: "I don't know 'bout youse fellas, but I don't wanna risk me neck for a matter that don't concern me 'n' mine nohow."

This statement of dissent was met by a roar of approval from his grimy brethren. The bandana-clad pirate was joined where he stood above the other pirates on a cluster of large barrels grouped by the main mast by his particular friend, that is, as much of friends as pirates can be to one another, by a young pirate but distinguished among the crew as one of the fiercest fighting pirates on this side of the Atlantic.

"I say we throw the big hatted ole fool 'n' his little crew" (for Pintel, Ragetti, and Gibbs had returned to the _Glory_ before Will and Elizabeth and now stood grouped behind Captain Barbossa, the 'big hatted ole fool') "over the side 'o' the ship an' let 'em swim to whatever certain death they're headed to and leave us'n outta it!" the young pirate shouted.

Suddenly several pistol shots rent the air, one hitting the young pirate in the hand, which he had waved around while giving his proposal. He collapsed forward off the barrels as Captain Barbossa, a smoking pistol in hand, swaggered forward and kicked the man over onto his back.

"Listen up, me hearties, for anyone who don't mark me words will pay for it with more than some lead in 'is hand," Barbossa shouted in his most commanding voice. "There ain't gonna be no bloody mutinyin'" (at which Gibbs snorted in disgust) "while I command this mission. Ye'll do whatever it is I tell youse and be happy fer it, ye got that?"

The response of the _Glory's_ crew was to shuffle their heavily booted feet and mutter uneasily, but were apparently unwilling to share the same fate as the injured pirate. Barbossa, taking their fear of him as assent, went on thus:

"I'll be takin' that as a yes, then. Be ready to make sail by dark."

With that Barbossa began to move towards the captain's quarters, when the crew, catching sight of Will and Elizabeth where they stood in front of the gang plank where they had been watching the action, began to jeer and whistle at Elizabeth.

Will, shooting her a look that seemed to say _This is exactly why I did not want you to come,_ moved in front of Elizabeth and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to protect his fiancée's honor if need be.

However, this was rendered unnecessary, much to the young lovers' surprise, by Captain Barbossa's whirling around and exercising his new found fear over the crew, snapped,

"Ye'll be leavin' the young lady alone or pay the price of it, do I make myself heard, ye scurvy sea dogs?"

Then he banged his way into his cabin. Gibbs, assuming his position as first mate, strode forward and yelled, "Ye heard the captain, now, get ta work!" At which everyone scattered to their various tasks above deck while two men carried the injured pirate below deck.

An hour later in the quickly fading twilight, Elizabeth, unwilling to go to below to her cabin, sat on an overturned bucket, grumpily mending a few damaged sails by lantern light, a task delegated her by Captain Barbossa in so condescending a manner that it was hard for her to sit there complacently when what she really wished to do was slap him across his disgusting face. Sighing, she looked up to where stood getting read to assist the crew of the _Glory_ in raising some of the larger sails to catch the favorable wind Mother Nature had just graced them with.

Elizabeth, pretending to be deeply engrossed her work, stole frequent glances to where her handsome fiancée stood in his breeches and billowing white shirt.

"All right then, laddies," called the pirate at the front of the line, "On 'a' count o three, heave: one…two…_three!_"

Up soared the sail, like the giant wings of the great albatross. The men pulling the ropes strained their brawny muscles against the force of gravity, their shirts stretching across their broad backs.

All of the sudden, a pained cry rent the air and Elizabeth, recognizing the voice to be that of her Will's, looked up to see her fiancée, who had let go of the rope and ran a few paces away from the line, pull his shirt quickly over his head in a scrabbling motion. Elizabeth saw with a gasp very distinctly five relatively new lash marks which had just reopened as a result of Will's labors and were poring blood down his back.

She was at his side in a moment, grabbing his hand and attempting to lead him below deck, but Will extricated his hand from hers, and throwing his shirt away from as though it were a dirty rag not worthy for him to wipe his hands on, he snapped, "I am fine, Elizabeth; it is just a bit of blood. Let me get back to my work, which I might suggest you do as well."

Ignoring his waspish tone, Elizabeth picked up his discarded shirt and pressed it gently into his back. He hissed with the pain and opened his mouth to protest yet again, but was stopped by her speaking first.

"How did this happen?" she demanded quietly.

"Really, Elizabeth, this is quite unnecessary," he said exasperatedly, evading the question, and began to move away from her when Captain Barbossa, who could sense when a member of his crew was not doing his work, came above deck.

Surveying the situation, he sneeringly said, "Let yer pretty little missus attend to ye below deck, young Master Turner—I'll not have ye two distracting my crew with yer carryin' on like a pair 'o' love sick doves." He shot a glare at the crew and shouted, "Get back ter work and don' let me catch ya slackin' off agin, or ye'll answer directly to me, ya hear?"

Will, looking as though he would rather like to protest, decided better of it and stormed before Elizabeth below deck to the small cabin she slept in that had previously belonged to the first mate, who now hung up his hammock with the rest of the crew. Banging his way into the small room, he twirled a chair around so the seat faced him and sat down straddling the chair so that his back was presented to Elizabeth when she walked into the cabin behind him.

She silently placed a basin of water warmed naturally by the hot Caribbean climate and grabbed a few clean scraps of fabric from a small chest at the foot of the bed, which she then dipped in the water and applied to the wounds on her fiancée's back.

"Oh, Will," she breathed softly when she saw him flinch with pain. "Who did this to you? Tell me, please."

"Makes no matter who or why, what's done is done and gabbing over it won't change," Will said through his pain, trying to maintain a tone of careless gruffness.

Annoyed at her future husband's refusal to be forthcoming with her, Elizabeth pressed the rag soaked it water a little harder against the lash wound on his back she was cleaning.

"Damn it, Elizabeth!" he snapped angrily, attempting in his pain to stand up and get away from his irate fiancée, but Elizabeth, applying her hands to both his shoulders, kept him down.

"Do not use that language to me, William Turner, when all I am attempting to do is make sure you do not die of an infection, though God only knows why you will not tell me how you came to receive them!"

Mollified, Will rested his chin on top of the back of his chair, thinking hard. Elizabeth, unwilling to interrupt him because it might lead to a full confession, went about cleaning and dressing his wounds. She saw with relief that infection had not set in despite the wounds going unattended to for a time.

Suddenly, Will looked up at her and said quietly, "I do not want you to hate my father."

"Why would I hate your father?" Elizabeth asked, her voice showing her surprise at his odd statement.

"Because it is he that did this to me," Will replied in the same solemn, quiet voice.

Elizabeth, who sat with her bottom perched on top of the small table in the cabin, looked down at her hands which sat folded in her lap, shooting a worried glance at Will out of the corner of her eye. She said nothing though she privately wondered if she was mistaken in her diagnosis and her fiancée was suffering from delusions due to fever.

Slamming his fist down on the table and causing Elizabeth to jump, Will stood and petulantly snapped, "I am _not_ crazy!"

"I never said you were!" Elizabeth yelped, wounded by his vehemence. "It's just that…well…your father…sweetheart, he's—dead!...How—how could he possibly have done this to you?"

"I don't expect anyone to believe me," Will said in the same quiet, thoughtful voice he had been speaking in before his little outburst. He straddled the chair again and placed his head in his hands. Then, in a muffled voice, as if almost to himself, he continued, "I would hardly believe it myself if someone told me this story."

"Will, I love you…I want to spend the rest of my life with you! You can tell me anything—never doubt that!" Elizabeth exclaimed.

Taking a deep breath, Will launched into the story of how Jack had tricked him into going aboard the ship of Davy Jones', how he had met his father, how, because of his father, he had been sentenced to five lashes, and how Davy Jones had forced his father to carry out the punishment.

Elizabeth was almost overcome with anger, not only towards Will's father, but that bloody Captain Jack Sparrow as well. She vowed that as soon as they rescued him from the end of the earth, she would make him wish he were dead all over again. Then relenting in her anger, she said, "Oh, Will," and holding his face in her hands, she leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips, at which point we will leave our young lovers to enjoy one another's company unwatched.


End file.
